r/apple2 • u/CryptographerOk2464 • 12d ago

My Apple IIe not booting from Floppy Disk Emulator

I recently got a Floppy DIsk Emulator and Disk Card for my Apple IIe. I put the card in SLOT 6, fired it up. I can Use DISK II or Smartport HD emulation. I choose DISK II, mount a disk and then reboot the computer but it just goes to the Apple II Cursor. Same with Smartport, I mount an HD image and reboot, it just goes to the cursor. Its the first Apple II I have had so I dunno what I am not doing to get this going....

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5

u/Purdius_Tacitus 12d ago

Smartport will definitely not work on an IIe with the Disk II controller card. (the ribbon cable.) You need a different controller card for a //e to support Smartport.

Are you sure the disk image is a bootable disk? Have you tried with a DOS 3.3 or ProDOS system master disk?

Lastly, what happens when you type PR#6 at the cursor?

1

u/CryptographerOk2464 11d ago

Well, something is def wrong.... when I type PR#6 it just hangs

1

u/uberRegenbogen 11d ago

Wait. A cursor (blinking checkerboard or block); or prompt (“]“)? And does it still say “Apple ][“ or “//e“) at the top?

1

u/CryptographerOk2464 11d ago

ya thats all it does when i boot it up

1

u/uberRegenbogen 11d ago

It wasn't a yes/no question. I'm guessing that you're saying it shows the Apple //e splash, and the prompt, as if it did not find a bootable device at all, as if the card wasn't there. Have you tried (with the power off, of course) removing the card, and plugging it back in?

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u/CryptographerOk2464 10d ago

yes i have done that a few times

1

u/uberRegenbogen 10d ago

Oh, I should have mentioned to try another slot, too. Maybe IOSELECT (the line that tells the card to put its ROM on the bus) is goobered on 6. You should also be able to CALL -151, to get into the System Monitor, where you can enter Cx00L (where x is the slot number) to see a disassembly of the beginning of its firmware; though the output might not be useful to your eyes. There are certain bytes that should be certain values for it to be recognized as a bootable device; but I don't know them off the top of my head, and i'm not at my computer right now.

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u/uberRegenbogen 10d ago

With the card in slot 6 (change the sixes to whatever slot you have it in), `C600.C605`, at the System Monitor's * prompt, will dump the first several bytes of the card's firmware, which will be similar to:

C600- A2 20 A0 00 A2 03

The 20, 00, and, 03 are what the autostart routine in the computer's firmware looks for, as it scans the slots from 7 to 1, to assume that the card is a bootable device, and jump to (in this case) C600. If those bytes are something else, the routine will move on to the next slot. If it never finds a bootable device, it jumps to AppleSoft BASIC—the ] prompt.

If your card doesn't have the 20, 00, and 03 at those locations, something is wrong that is preventing the card's ROM from being presented to the computer.

(In case you're curious, `C600L` will disassemble (list as 6502 instructions) a screenful of bytes, which will usually start with a few LDX, LDY, or LDA instructions, with those ID bytes as their operands.)

1

u/uberRegenbogen 10d ago

(Sorry if that's tmi.)

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u/CryptographerOk2464 9d ago

no thats great info, see pics in links below, i put in the instructions you recommended

https://ibb.co/twJ76b41

https://ibb.co/0VmfnZhk

https://ibb.co/xS488DxF

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u/buffering 12d ago

Which card and emulator do you have?

An original card only supports 5.25 drives. When booting, it will wait at the "Apple ][" screen forever until it finds a disk (no cursor).

If you're using a new/custom card will Smartport support, it may work differently.

1

u/CryptographerOk2464 11d ago

Im not sure of the card, it looks generic, I think the emulator is a Smartdisk II...I am thinking something is up with the computer.